ENVIRONMENT(S) Art Opening Reception
Thursday, Oct. 6 at 7:30 pm
Takoma Park Community Center
7500 Maple Avenue
City Offices and Facilities will be closed on Thursday, July 4, 2024, in observance of the Independence Day holiday.
Takoma Park Elections Will Take Place on Tuesday, November 5, 2024
The scheduling of demolition and construction timelines are pending weather.
Category for Takoma alert items.
Thursday, Oct. 6 at 7:30 pm
Takoma Park Community Center
7500 Maple Avenue
UNSUNG HEROES Art Opening Reception
Thursday, July 28 at 7:30 pm
Takoma Park Community Center
7500 Maple Avenue
Local artist Renee Lachman is honoring City of Takoma Park employees whose important work often goes unnoticed in a new series of paintings and charcoal drawings. Sanitation workers, gardeners, crossing guards, and library staff are featured in her artwork.
“During the COVID-19 pandemic, we’ve celebrated the work of doctors, nurses, and firefighters. I wanted to highlight Takoma Park’s other unsung heroes,” Lachman said.
The opening reception at the Takoma Park Community Center is free and open to everyone. The exhibition is supported by a grant from the City’s Arts and Humanities Division. Go to takomaparkmd.gov/arts to learn more about our Takoma Park Arts events series and to sign up for our e-newsletter.
Takoma Park has moved closer to the Caribbean since colorful coral reefs have magically appeared inside two local bus shelters.
Vinyl wraps featuring a lively aquatic design have been installed on glass panels at the bus shelters to enliven community spaces and encourage public transportation. The City of Takoma Park’s Arts and Humanities Division organized the project using public art funds.
“We wanted to create a fun scene that would brighten people’s day while they’re walking by or waiting for the bus,” Arts and Humanities Coordinator Brendan Smith said. “They are the first bus shelters where you can sit next to tropical fish and sea turtles without holding your breath.”
Arts and Humanities Intern Paula Barrios designed the wraps which were installed on shelters at the ALDI shopping center at 1300 Holton Lane and at the intersection of Maple Avenue and Hilltop Road.
Grab a face mask and snorkel and dive in! Take some photos of yourself exploring the coral reefs and share them on the City of Takoma Park’s Twitter page at twitter.com/takomaparkmd and Instagram at instagram.com/TakomaParkMD.
Vinyl wraps promoting the Takoma Park Arts series also have been installed on three additional bus shelters. The wraps feature artwork and former performers in the Takoma Park Arts series, which features free arts events at the Takoma Park Community Center. Two shelters are located at the intersection of Flower Avenue and Houston Avenue, and the third shelter is next to Piney Branch Elementary School at 7510 Maple Avenue.
Go to takomaparkmd.gov/arts for more info about the Takoma Park Arts series and sign up for our e-newsletter.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Takoma Park, MD—JUNE 1, 2022—City TV received a 2022 Hometown Media Award from the Alliance for Community Media Foundation. The awards program was established to honor and promote community media, community radio, and local cable programs distributed on Public, Educational, and Governmental (PEG) access cable television channels. Proceeds go to the ACM Foundation, which is exclusively used for facilitating, preserving, and promoting education in community media.
City TV has won the Overall Excellence in Governmental Programming. The award honors all the programming of the station, not just one show. City TV entered a category with stations doubling its budget. This is the fourth time City TV has won the overall award.
“We’ve entered these awards about 12 times in the last 20-plus years because they are the greatest representation of the type of station we are,” says Alvaro C. Calabia, TV production manager for the City of Takoma Park. “We cover the local politics, local non-profits, residents, all our diversity. Hyperlocal it’s called. We love it, and we usually deal with residents doing what they love, arts, sports, activism, solidarity… Every day you meet someone new, and you learn something different. The award is just a way to let us know that we are doing it the right way.”
Each year, nearly one thousand entries are submitted. These entries, or programs, are submitted and evaluated on several factors resulting in over 100 award winners. Then, a panel of judges from the industry evaluate the entries. Awards are presented to the most creative programs that address community needs, develop diverse community involvement, challenge conventional commercial television formats, and move viewers to experience television differently.
“The Hometown Media Awards celebrate both the excellence of work and the diversity of media that appears on community channels being produced around the country. The ACM Foundation is proud of their achievement and of how they represent their communities in their work,” said Mike Wassenaar, President & CEO, Alliance for Community Media.
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Contact:
City TV
CableTV@takomaparkmd.gov
301-891-7118
Takoma Park Community Center
7500 Maple Avenue
Sculptures chiseled and carved in stone by artist Michelle Frazier are on display at the Takoma Park Community Center.
Frazier brings faces, bodies and abstract shapes to life through her sculpture of soapstone and alabaster across a range of natural colors. The exhibition, which is part of the City’s Takoma Park Arts cultural series, is on display in glass cases near the library in the Community Center.
“When I carve a face or figure into the stone, I am guided by the shape of the stone,” Frazier said. “I carve the stone into familiar forms, carrying with them an emotional charge; the forms are beautiful, the stone transformed. With a familiar shape on the stone, the eyes can look in and see this layered inner beauty.”
Frazier received her MFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art and her BFA from the Corcoran School of Art. She teaches art classes for teens and adults with special needs at the Arlington County Department of Parks and Recreation. You can see more of her artwork at stonewomynarts.com.
Where can you see the Orfeia vocal ensemble, Dong Xi duet, and artwork made from delicate fabric or battered musical instruments?
The performers and artwork were featured in the City of Takoma Park’s Takoma Park Arts cultural series, and they appear now on vinyl wraps that have been installed on glass panels at three new local bus shelters. The public art project is beautifying bus shelters and promoting the Takoma Park Arts series, which includes free City-funded art exhibitions, concerts, poetry readings, film screenings, theater, and other events at the Takoma Park Community Center at 7500 Maple Avenue.
“We want to get the word out about the many free events we host at the Takoma Park Community Center, and bus shelters are a great place to do that,” Arts and Humanities Coordinator Brendan Smith said.
The wraps, which were designed by Arts and Humanities Intern Paula Barrios, are located on a new bus shelter at Piney Branch Elementary School at 7510 Maple Avenue and two shelters at the intersection of Flower Avenue and Houston Avenue. The featured artwork was created by Jacqui Crocetta and Seemeen Hashem, and the wraps were printed and installed by Signarama Silver Spring.
The project is part of the City’s Public Art Works initiative which installs public art projects across the city in conjunction with public works efforts. Other projects include the Art on the Move bus shelter poster series featuring artwork by artists in upcoming Takoma Park Arts exhibitions and a sidewalk poetry program where poems by local residents are being stamped into new concrete sidewalks.
The Arts and Humanities Division also is creating a different design that will be installed at a later date on two more bus shelters. Please go to takomaparkmd.gov/arts for more info about the Takoma Park Arts series, our public art projects, and to sign up for our e-newsletter.
In partnership with Montgomery County, the City of Takoma Park is extending its COVID-19 PCR testing clinics and will offer them on select Wednesdays in April.
Days: Wednesdays in May
(May 4, 11, 18, & 25)
Time: 9:00 am – 6:00 pm
Takoma Park Recreation Center
7315 New Hampshire Ave
Takoma Park, MD 20912
Takoma Park Community Center
7500 Maple Avenue
On Display until July 15
The Realm of the Real exhibition showcases the figurative artwork of three local artists who explore different aspects and interpretations of the human form, ranging from graceful dancers to historical figures to more abstract representations. The artists include Sarah Louise Hyde, Michael Hyman, and Michael G. Stewart.
Hyde’s paintings of dancers reveal swirling forms, elegant gestures, and the unspoken rhythms of motion. She served on the faculty of the Corcoran School of Art and showed her work in the D.C. area before her death from brain cancer in 2007. Her husband Jack Kline has been sharing her work with a wider audience as “a visual remembrance and memorial to her energy, creativity, and enthusiasm,” he said.
Hyman is a Black artist whose work encompasses painting, digital 3D sculpture, video installation, and photography. “I’m most excited about creating pieces in the range of Negritude Art with linear narratives embedded in social and political abstractions,” he said. “I hope to fascinate, educate, and enlighten the viewer with my work.” Negritude began in the 1930s as a literary movement among French-speaking African and Caribbean writers who asserted the power of Black identity and a rejection of colonialism.
Stewart’s career as an architectural and aerial photographer helped him translate his artistic vision into more personal mediums, such as drawing, etching, and linocuts. He worked for 20 years as a photographer for the National Endowment for the Arts.
This art exhibition is part of the Takoma Park Arts cultural series, which includes free film screenings, poetry readings, concerts, theater performances, and other events at the Takoma Park Community Center. Go to takomaparkmd.gov/arts for more info and to sign up for our e-newsletter.
The Takoma ARTery arts group has launched a new artist directory featuring artwork and info about local artists. The creation of the directory was funded in part by a grant from the City’s Arts and Humanities Division to support the local creative community, their small businesses, and economic development in Takoma Park.
“The City of Takoma Park has a long track record of supporting the arts through our Takoma Park Arts events series and a wide range of public art projects,” Arts and Humanities Coordinator Brendan Smith said. “We also work with local arts organizations, and the Takoma ARTery has done a lot of great work in a short time bringing artists together to support their livelihoods.”
A group of volunteers started the Takoma ARTery during the COVID-19 pandemic to feature artwork by local artists in underused storefronts in downtown Takoma Park and at the Takoma Junction. City grants also helped fund the group’s start-up costs and the ARTery’s first art fair that was held last summer outside the Takoma Park Community Center.
“The financial and staff support from the City have helped transform the ARTery from an innovative pandemic-related arts project into a vibrant artist community which is boosting the creative economy,” ARTery co-founder Eleanor Landstreet said.
Artists will be charged a $70 annual fee to be featured in the directory to help offset the ARTery’s ongoing expenses. Some fee waivers will be available based on income. There is more info on the ARTery website.
The City Council will begin meeting in the Auditorium of the Takoma Park Community Center in March starting Wednesday, March 9. Meetings will be conducted in a hybrid format, with the City Council and most staff typically present in the Auditorium. Participation on Zoom will continue to be an option for community members who do not wish to or cannot attend meetings in person.
For members of the public who wish to comment on Zoom, we will continue to request registration on Zoom before 5 pm on the day of the meeting.
The public may view the meetings on City TV (RCN – 13, HD 1060; Comcast/Xfinity – 13, HD 997; Verizon Fios – 28), on the City Council Video Page of the City Website; on YouTube, or on Facebook.
Please note the City’s Mask Mandate is still in effect.
City Boards and Committees can continue to meet on Zoom or may resume in-person meetings. However, we encourage providing a Zoom option even if meetings are held in the Community Center. Several meeting rooms are equipped with Smartboards that enable a hybrid virtual/in-person meeting. View the City Council, Board, Commission, and Committee Meetings page to see the complete list of upcoming meetings.
Individuals interested in receiving a weekly Council agenda and committee calendar update by e-mail can sign up by emailing Clerk@takomaparkmd.gov.
The City of Takoma Park is committed to ensuring that individuals with disabilities can fully participate in public meetings. Anyone with a disability who wishes to receive auxiliary aids, services, or accommodations at a City of Takoma Park public meeting or public hearing is invited to contact Jessie Carpenter, City Clerk, at jessiec@takomaparkmd.gov or 301-891-7267 as early as possible.